


Aftermath

by 80sGayTrashGoblin



Series: BAltDAU [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Voltron: Lion Force (1984)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Suicide, BAltDAU, Drinking, Gen, Keith needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:33:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/80sGayTrashGoblin/pseuds/80sGayTrashGoblin
Summary: When the villain captures someone dear to the hero, what happens to them? When the hero shatters, who will catch them?(vague as fuck summary because this was a repost from Tumblr and idk how to summarize this mess well)
Series: BAltDAU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794631
Kudos: 2





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note: Keith uses Akira as his name in the alternate universe purely because having two Keith's would be confusing for everyone. This is also a fair bit of time after Keith (LD) gets captured by Lotor and carted over to the alternate universe.
> 
> If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about, go here: https://80sgaytrashgoblin.tumblr.com/baltdau-project-page

Keith ran, ran from his problems, his emotions, his life. No one else knows where he runs, to the caffeine and scars, and he liked to keep it that way.

Well, some did. But they were gone.

Keith was lucky he had the practice of acting like he had his shit together, when in reality his mind was fracturing. The black infection, the quintessence poisoning that Haggar put in him, slowly spread up his arm, and he could no longer suppress the pain his body feels when he abuses it. He's in constant pain, but no one notices the absent nights or the constant bottle in his hand or the teleportation. Just the way he likes it.

They had landed the castle on a planet with oxygen, so Keith was sitting on top of it, leaning back against the spire. He was drinking his cocktail of alcohol, coffee, Redbull and pure caffeine, trying to dull the pain he felt. Get the perfect mix of content and aware.

He had another sip, fingering the ring in his pocket. It was Lance's ring, that Keith gave to him when he proposed. The only reason he had it was because Lotor killed him, killed them.

For the first time in a long time, Keith cried. He allowed himself to sob openly, away from the others. It was probably concerning that the only time Keith could express his negative emotions was when he was at least tipsy, but that didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. He's lost his family, his kids, he's alone. It's only him and his lion, which means nothing in this world.

He could hear the wind around the castle, feel how high up he was. He knew with how high up he was that a fall would be fatal, and all he'd feel was a crunch before darkness. He'd prefer darkness over those nightmares that plagued him.

He stood up, holding onto the spire of the castle as the wind whipped around him, the alcohol having gotten to him a long time ago. Logically, he knew he was in no right mind to do anything like this, but he just didn't care. The universe has taken everything from him, it might as well take his life.

He couldn't hear the opening of a trapdoor behind him as he took steps towards the edge, head too wrapped up in it's own thoughts. He couldn't hear the shouts of alarm from Shiro or the pleading of Onyx as he stepped off the edge.

* * *

Shiro was walking out of the dignitary's office, along with the rest of Voltron. They had just discussed a deal with the leader of the planet, and they were just about to go prepare for a dinner to seal the deal.

"Sir!" A guard burst into the large hallway, saluting the group but also clearly panicking. His height and voice reminds Shiro of Keith, when he was younger and a new cadet. The absence of Keith was still getting to him, and Shiro would much rather be looking for him than chatting it up with some foreign dignitary, but the rebellion was stretched thin, especially with its leader practically disappearing.

"There's a large creature outside the gates!" The guard shouted, clearly abandoning all sense of politeness in his panic. "We don't know what it is!"

Shiro and Allura only had to glance at each other before they took off, the other paladins following behind them. The guard caught up with them, leading the group to the front. "What did it look like?" Allura asked.

"Big... Furry... On four paws... Black fur... And gold eyes... And two round ears... And whiskers..." The guard huffed, trying to give a description while he was running. "Colored pattern... On its chest..."

Shiro and Allura exchanged glances again, puzzled at what the thing could possibly be. It cleared up when they turned into the clearing.

It was a lion, Akira's lion, the one from the alternate universe. She had shrunk into her lioness form rather than her mechanical form, and she had charged into the clearing. As soon as they entered, she locked eyes with Shiro, and teleported to be right in front of him.

_Come with me. Now._ The ancient voice rumbled in Shiro's head, commanding and firm.

"What's going on Onyx?" Shiro asked quickly, afraid of her raw ferocity.

"She's talking to you?" Allura asked incredulously. "What is she saying?"

Shiro was about to speak, before being cut off by Onyx growling. _I don't have time to explain. Come with me!_ She head-butted him, knocking him down only to grab his prosthetic arm in her jaws. Shiro could only feel himself floating for a second, before landing dizzily on his feet.

He was only afforded a few seconds to look around, noting that he was in a room high up in the castle, before being pushed by Onyx again, towards the stairs.

"Really, what is going on?" Shiro exclaimed, planting his feet into the ground.

Onyx growled, and Shiro finally recognized the desperation in it. _Just follow me!_

The irritation Shiro felt melted right away. Onyx was a lion who had lived countless centuries and was cool-headed, so for her to be desperate means something really bad.

Shiro followed the lioness as she bounded up the stairs, eventually coming up to a ladder with a trapdoor. She teleported up to the roof, and Shiro bounded up the ladder, slamming the trapdoor and looking at the scene around him.

Onyx has dug her claws into the metal of the roof, tail flicking wildly as she growled desperately. Akira was standing on the roof of the castle, aimlessly walking towards the edge.

"Akira!" Shiro shouted, scrambling up to a standing position. By the time he had, Akira was already at the edge, and his foot went off the edge.

Shiro wasn't aware that he was running until he grabbed the back of Akira's cloak, yanking away from the fatal height. The force was enough to send them tumbling, Shiro getting the wind knocked out of him. Akira was surprisingly light for the commanding presence he usually has of leading an army, but it was surprising for him to be jumping off of buildings.

Akira seemed to be stunned at the recent turn of events, which was great because it allowed Shiro to catch his breath and drag both of them away from the edge and towards the spire in the center. Shiro could see the large bottle Akira always carried with him knocked over, and could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"What are you doing?!" Shiro shouted, more from shock than anything else. "You'd die if you walked off!"

Akira pulled himself out of Shiro's arms, and he was reminded of the time that Akira managed to throw an eight foot tall Galra soldier when he was only about 5'6". He stumbled his way into standing up, trembling like he was a leaf about to be blown away in the wind. With how light he was, it was a legitimate concern. In fact, now that Shiro thought about it, he couldn't remember a single time that he saw the man eat while with them.

Shiro pulled himself up too, ready to move if he needed to. "You've been drinking! If you needed someone to help you get down, you should've called someone! You can't just jump off the castle-!"

"And why not?!" Akira shouted back, leaning on the castle spire for support.

"Because you'd fucking die!"

"You think I don't know that?! You think I don't want that?!"

Akira's words were like a punch in the gut, and Shiro was physically reeling as he continued. "I've lost everything I ever had! Back on Arus, I had a family! Yeah, we were all traumatized and in desperate need of a therapist, but we had each other! And I had proposed to my boyfriend! Do you know what it feels like to propose to your soulmate, and then be taken away the very next fucking night?!

"I've fought all my life for the slightest scrap of happiness! I was tricked into fighting a war! I was left for dead when it wasn't convenient for them! I have been tortured and used as a lab rat! My family is dead, and they've taken my children away!"

Akira stopped, huffing for air. Tears were pooling in his eyes, and his shaking has just gotten worse. "The universe has been trying to kill me for a while now," he muttered. "I'm done fighting it."

Shiro's eyes widened, and he took a few steps towards Akira. He flinched in alarm when Shiro reached out to him, but he just pulled Akira into a hug.

Akira was straight backed for a few moments, but melted into the hug soon enough. He sobbed into Shiro's chest, letting the raw emotion out. Shiro was slowly inching them towards the trapdoor so that they weren't standing on the castle.

Eventually, the sobs turned to sniffles, and the sniffles tuckered out. His eyes were puffy and red, and he want shaking as badly as he was before.

"I'm sorry," Akira muttered, catching Shiro off guard. "You shouldn't have seen me like this."

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked.

"You shouldn't have seen under the mask, the mess I usually am," Akira chuckled darkly, wiping away the tears on his face. "I don't usually drink."

"But you constantly have caffeine on you." The one time Akira had offered him it to take a sip, it had tasted like soap. "What do you put in that stuff?"

"Nine Redbulls, four cups of coffee, and three packets of pure caffeine." Akira listed the ingredients of his monstrosity like he knows it by heart.

"Holy shit, how are you not dead?"

"Haggar." Akira spat the name out like it hurt to say it. "That bitch made it impossible to die."

"That's not as bad as you think it is."

Akira glared at him, which was not effective when he was swaying from the alcohol in his system. "I never would've told you any of this had I not been drunk."

"I know."

"You're the only one alive who knows any of this."

"I know- Wait, what? You told someone, right?"

"I did. They're all dead."

"Oh." Shiro paused, then thought about something. "How long have you felt like this?"

"I always have, but I was able to control it, until-"

"Keith got captured."

"Yeah. Yeah." Akira paused, apparently having thought of something. "You can't tell the others. They look up to me, I don't want to ruin that for them."

Shiro sighed. "I won't, I promise."

Akira half laughed, half sobbed. "God, I'm a failure, aren't I. Real piece of shit of a human."

"No, you're not allowed to talk about yourself like that." Shiro grabbed Akira's shoulders, especially after he had looked back over at the edge again. "Come on. You'll feel better after you sleep off the alcohol."

Shiro easily picked Akira up, as he was so light and offered no resistance. Akira just zoned out as Shiro walked down to the bedrooms, Onyx padding quietly behind them. She radiated concern, worry clear in the lioness's eyes.

He realized that Akira didn't have a room, and decided to lay him down in his room. Onyx jumped on the bed, lying down on top of Akira. Shiro locked the door to the bedroom, putting up the sign Lance made him that says 'Taking a sleep,' and flopped on the couch.

Shiro needed a minute to process what just happened.


End file.
